With more and more people joining the ranks of the filthy rich in China, it must be getting harder and harder to find new ways to flaunt your wealth.

It must be especially troublesome when choosing what car to buy in order to stand out from the crowd. But this person, from the city of Xianyang in Shaanxi province, has chosen a very interesting alternative form of luxury transportation.

Instead of sitting comfortably at the back of a Mercedes or BMW, he rides his horse daily to and from work. Accompanying him is his trusty secretary. Together, they ride regardless of weather.

“It normally takes a little more than 20 minutes to get to work” says He Yanqing an owner of a private company, “and I enjoy the looks from passers-by”.

Some of the reasons Mr. He gives in support of horseback riding include it being more environmentally friendly and able to avoid traffic jams.

According to Mr. He, riding a horse is also a lot more economical compared to cars. A good horse can be bought for 20,000 RMB (~3,000 USD) and the yearly maintenance is low – around 4,000 RMB (~600 USD).

As for whether this is actually road legal, it seems that according to the “PRC Road Traffic Safety Law” there are no restrictions against riding animals on roads. So it seems that there is nothing stopping Mr. He for now.

In what might sound like a dream come true, prison inmates in China are forced to farm gold in the MMORPG World of Warcraft.

Obviously, things aren’t always as great as they sound. Check out the video below to understand why…

So instead of just suffering physically, China’s prisoners also have to suffer mentally. What might seem like an addictive hobby for a lot of gamers is torture to these prisoners.

According to the Guardian, “prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour.”

This is no surprise as the virtual economy is growing rapidly. Around the World, millions of gamers are prepared to pay real money for virtual currency to obtain virtual goods in games. It is known as “gold farming” – the practice of building up credits and online value through the monotonous repetition of basic tasks in online games such as World of Warcraft. The trade in virtual assets is very real, and outside the control of game publishers.

Figures from the China Internet Centre show that nearly 2 billion dollars worth of virtual currency was traded in China in 2008 and the number of gamers who play to trade credits are on the rise. It is estimated that 80% of all gold farmers are in China; with 100,000 full-time gold farmers in the country.

From the sound of things, China is also going to be a leader of labour exploitation in the virtual world.

How mad do you need get to destroy your car? What if it was a Gallardo?

Well this Chinese owner would destroyed his Gallardo over a dispute with the dealership.

The millionaire reportedly bought a Gallardo (price up to $700,000 in China) last November. Six months later, the engine wouldn’t start. The car was transported to the dealer, in Qingdao, who allegedly didn’t fix the problem but dinged the bumper and chassis during the trip. The irate owner tried unsuccessfully to get the problem fixed, to no avail. He escalated his case all the way up to Lamborghini CEO Stephen Winkelmann, but apparently the dispute wasn’t resolved.

So on March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, the Lambo owner hired a team with sledgehammers to destroy the car in public.

You can see the destruction here:

Lamborghini later issued a statement saying: “We put customer satisfaction first at Lamborghini and think that in this case we did everything to solve the problem. We solved the problem to the satisfaction of the customer.” The statement added that for reasons that are “independent from the relationship with Lamborghini, the owner decided to take this action and smash the car.”

The media later reported that the owner was a Japanese-Chinese businessman who imported the car from Japan. The Gallardo wasn’t even new, but was eight years old and probably was valued at about $80,000.

Apparently, the Lambo owner had a problem with the car, which was promptly fixed. But the owner had a larger business dispute with the businessman who owned the Lamborghini dealership in Qingdao. The event was used for the owner to gain publicity for his own business and to discredit the owner of the Lambo dealer owner.

This explanation is more compelling given the fact the owner placed stickers on the car bearing his own company’s logo (As you can see in the photo above). He also smashed the car in front of his company’s office building, to direct more attention to his business.

I guess the answer to the opening question would be: no one. At least no one is mad enough to calmly hire a group of workers, put banners on the car, drag the car to office and wait until World Consumer Rights Day before smashing the car.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China normally evokes a strict and disciplined image. This image, however, elicits the scorn of many Chinese that is usually reserved for the filthy rich.

A Chinese netizen posted about running into the two women wearing military uniforms at the Shenzhen airport and shocked by how they were accessorized: two shoulder bags/purses, a Burberry and LV (Louis Vuitton) respectively, LV branded luggage bags and suitcases, and the black paper bag at the bottom left corner of the photo was a newly purchased Gucci.

Attentive netizens calculated how much all of the items in the picture cost: Large LV luggage bag/each = 58,500 yuan, 5 * 58,500 = 292,500 yuan, small LV bag/each = 26,000 yuan, 2 * 26,000 = 52,000 yuan, and not including the rolling suitcase and other items, the total: 344,500 yuan (~52,197 USD).

The question is whether the army personnel are that well paid or are they just carrying fakes.

Genetically modified (GM) dairy products that are similar to human milk will appear on the Chinese market in two years, an expert in biotechnology has predicted.

Li Ning, a scientist from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at China Agricultural University, said progress in the field is well under way. Li said Chinese scientists have successfully created a herd of more than 200 cows that is capable of producing milk containing the characteristics of human milk.

“In ancient China, only the emperor and the empress could drink human milk throughout their lives, which was believed to be the height of opulence,” Li said. “Why not make that kind of milk more available for ordinary people?”

Human milk contains two kinds of nutrition that can help improve the immune systems and the central nervous systems of children. The components are not available in milk produced by goats or cows. Li said the scientific world had not previously found a way to mass-produce those ingredients.

Li states that the GM milk will be as safe to drink as that of the ordinary cows, and within 10 years, people will be able to pick up these human-milk-like products at the supermarket.

The Ministry of Agriculture issued bio-safety examination certificates for the GM herd in March 2010, giving the scientific team a 22-month period during which the technology can be tested in laboratories. The ministry will then evaluate the results of the tests before deciding whether to allow the milk to be sold. Xue Dayuan, chief expert with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said the government will carry out a series of tests on the transferred gene and the method of transplanting it before the genetically modified cows and their milk are declared safe.

China is the current powerhouse in Olympic gymnastics; winning a lot of gold medals over the years. However, its training programme has been harshly criticised for being too strict.

Children in China start to train to become gymnasts from the age of four. Before they are chosen to start training, children are tested to see if their bodies are limber enough to withstand the demands of the sport. Those that are selected, start a lifelong process of becoming the best. The Chinese government has set up a very large training facility where the children live and train. These little children have to balance a gruelling training schedule, tough school routine and also give time to their families. It can sometimes become too much for them to handle.

Spurred by dreams of national glory, many parent are very willing to subject their children to such intense lifestyle.

Some may say that putting young children under such intense training is child abuse. That is debatable, but no one can argue that such training methods haven’t paid off.

Although Government officials tried to calm fears by emphasizing that radiation levels in 41 cities across China remain normal, many Chinese have gone into full panic mode. Staff from multiple branches of the French supermarket chain Carrefour reported that their supplies of salt have been sold out since Thursday morning in Beijing.

Triggered by the belief that salt could prevent radiation-related illnesses and to secure uncontaminated salt sources, shoppers are hoarding as much salt as they can. One customer in the eastern city of Ningbo told the nation’s CCTV that she had purchased a five-year supply to placate her family’s fears of radiation. Another idiot named Michael Zeng, a 21-year-old college student in Beijing, said “it’s always safe to do what the majority are doing.”

Fears of a salt shortage also spread to Hong Kong, where many supermarkets ran out of salt as nervous shoppers stocked up on supplies. In fact, as I checked yesterday afternoon, even soy sauce, other basic cooking condiments and rice have been entirely cleared out from supermarket shelves.

Anyone who has bothered to check Wikipedia would know iodine in iodized salt is ineffective for preventing radiation effects, according to the World Health Organization. It would take 80 tablespoons of salt to make up one prophylactic, or preventative, iodide tablet. Further, only a fraction of China’s salt for consumption comes from the sea, said Song Zhangjing, a spokesman for industry organization the China Salt Association. “In China, most salt are from salt mines.”

In brief, there is no reason to hoard salt at all and those who do are complete fools.Continue reading »

Recently, the title for the “World’s Most Expensive Dog” was snatched by China – again. A red Tibetan Mastiff, named “Hong Dong”, was sold for 10 million yuan (around $1.5 million) to a coal baron from North of China. Before the sale, the World’s most expensive dog was another Tibetan Mastiff who was sold in 2009 for 4 million yuan ($608,680).

“Hong Dong”, is 11-months-old but already stands nearly three-feet-high at the shoulder and weighs more than 180lbs, according to his breeder, Lu Liang. “He is a perfect specimen,” said Mr Lu, who runs the Tibetan Mastiff Garden in Laoshan, near the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. “He has excellent genes and will be a good breeding dog.” “The price is justified,” he said. “We have spent a lot of money raising this dog, and we have the salaries of plenty of staff to pay.”

According to Mr Lu, the Tibetan Mastiff was fed a diet of chicken and beef, spiced up with exotic Chinese delicacies such as sea cucumber and abalone. That sounds like a luxurious life even for a human. Considering that abalone is something most living in China will never taste in their entire life, I would say that most would wish to rather be reincarnated as this dog.

But is a rare breed and an opulent style of nurturing worth such a high price? The new owner definitely thinks so. The male dog can be hired out to other breeders for as much as 100,000 yuan a shot, so it can be considered more as an investment than pet.

Tibetan Mastiffs are huge and fierce guard dogs that have stood watch over nomad camps and monasteries on the Tibetan plateau for centuries. They are thought to be one of the world’s oldest breeds, and legend has it that both Genghis Khan and Lord Buddha kept them.

More recently, however, they have become highly-prized status symbols for China’s new rich. The dogs are thought to be a pure “Chinese” breed and they are rarely found outside Tibet, giving them an exclusivity that other breeds cannot match.